The Return of the Sardina!

Endless Season Update July 4th, 2010
REPORT #1221 "Below the Border" Saltwater Fly-Fishing reports since 1996
East Cape


All in all, this will be remembered as one of those weeks when you should have been here! photo Mark Rayor, Vista Sea Sports and Ruth Moran.

East Cape fishing exploded in the week leading up to the 4th of July. Lots of fish…big fish, and finally the sardina have returned.

Yellowfin action continues to be extraordinary! There have been many schools of porpoise with tuna to 150 pounds beneath them. The good news is that the porpoise schools are spread out allowing the fleet to do the same. Action begins as close as the lighthouse and can be found in any direction.

The dorado action is on the upswing as well, though most of the schoolie fish are on the smallish side. However, just when you least expect it, in comes a 30 to 40 pounder.

Then there is the giant of a wahoo (104 pounds) caught off La RIbera by a father and son from Colorado who were fishing with skipper Ramon from La Ribera on Los Amigos.

Billfish, sails, stripers and blues, are there for the taking for those interested. Inshore the Humboldt squid are there to get everyone started in the morning before heading out for a big one.

Then the rooster fish action has produced more Bubba's than a Catfish Noodling tournament in the south. All in all, this will be remembered as one of those weeks when you should have been here.

When the action gets this good, anglers often end up getting hooked, literally. Here is a refresher on what to do when it happens…the removal part not the other! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTUQXpg76xQ

Current East Cape Weather http://tiny.cc/EastCapeWeather303

Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico

In keeping with the oddest Baja fishing season in memory, there have been reports of marlin mixed in with the yellowfin tuna, but, as we know reports are as common as Pacifico's at a Mexican fiesta. The photos made the difference this time. In 71 degree water on the 23's , they caught two and broke off several marlin on the light gear they were using for the small tuna with plenty more marlin mixed in.

More weird stuff: WFO for halibut in Santa Maria Bay…go figure... Bob Hoyt

Current Magdalena Bay Weather http://tiny.cc/MagBayWeather150

Zihuatanejo, Mainland Mexico

We had been experiencing some fantastic action in the early part of this last week. The 84° blue water was just off the beach and the sailfish were going strong. Plus, we were recording some incredible catches of roosterfish and jack crevalle inshore. And then the rains came…

Adolfo, on the panga Dos Hermanos, told me his clients caught 18 roosterfish on Sunday. They were taken on surface poppers and slow-trolled live bait. He was working the areas south of Valentine and down to the antennas. He went back on Monday, and the roosters were gone, but he got about 15 jack crevalle, which are not so sensitive to the huge volume of fresh water lowering the salinity of the coast line. Due to the wind and intensity of the rain, he didn’t even try to fish on Wednesday.

From Sunday evening through Thursday afternoon, we have gotten 15 inches of rain, which really screws up the inshore fishing by bringing in tonnage of silt and fresh water from the numerous local rivers and streams. The silt makes the water look like weak hot chocolate and the fresh water lowers the salinity. It will take a couple of weeks to get things settled down again.

Our normal heavy rain comes at night, in the form of thunder showers, but we have had intermittent heavy rain at any hour of the 24 hour day. Other than the month of September, this is very unusual.

There is a group of fishermen who have been fighting the elements, and considering the conditions they are fishing in, they are doing well. There are ten fly fishermen here from the California's central valley, chartered through Mike Powers of American Fishing Company in Sacramento. Without the five pangas they are going out in daily, there would have been only three or four boats on the water each day this week.

So far, Adan on the panga Gitana is the high boat in the fleet, raising 15 sailfish, teasing 10 to the boat, with the fly clients hooking six. Please understand, a hooked fish on the fly is not exactly a fish brought to leader. The line gets wrapped around the reel, hooks are not set firmly enough to withstand the incredible aerobatics of a sailfish, the angler is standing on the fly line, etc.
Second captain honors go to Fernando, with two sailfish actually getting to the boat for photos.

When the sailfish action died off on Thursday, all of the group’s boats found the schools of small yellowfin tuna, which were willing to eat the fly. Plus, there were schools of the small pelagic sharks, which rarely get larger than four feet, but have a large shark’s appetite......…Ed Kunze

Current Zihuatanejo Weather http://tiny.cc/zihuatanejo582


Cabo San Lucas

There was a decent preview of summer fishing this week with striped marlin being a bit more active than last week, blue marlin showing up and a few swordfish showing as well. The striped marlin were found pretty close, as was everything else, mainly due to the fact that the farther out you went, the rougher the water became! Striped marlin were seen tailing on the surface but for the most part were ignoring the normal caballito and mackerel live baits. The boats that did the best were hooking small bonito close to shore,,,then slow trolling them. There were a few fish found that would eat the other baits, so it was not a waste of time or money to buy them, but the bonito seemed to work better. There was a nice blue marlin of 600 to 700 pounds caught and released (I saw the video) two miles off of Gray Rock. There was also a 150-pound swordfish caught around the 95 spot on Wednesday.

Yellowfin were being caught every day and there were a few large fish found up in the Punta Gorda area. Not as many of the larger fish as there were last week, but if you were one of the lucky boats, the fish were going up to 100 pounds. Nearer to home, there were scattered football fish to 25 pounds.

A few small dorado were caught this week, a few more than were showing up last week, and there were a couple of larger fish reported as well. Most of them were in the 8 to 10 pound class but the larger fish were around 20 to 25 pounds.

Inshore fishing was mostly conducted on the Cortez side of the Cape due to the wind. Pangas were doing all right, but not great, on snapper and small grouper. A few nice amberjack to 60 pounds were caught. Small bonito and football yellowfin tuna as well as a few striped marlin were found very close to the beach and got the panga fishermen excited. The wind and swells made the water a bit off color very close to the beach.

Our fingers are still crossed that the storms stay away, and it appears as if the winds have died down, at least for now. If the water warms back up (it has been in flux all week) the fishing should definitely keep improving. … George and Mary Landrum

Current Cabo Weather http://tiny.cc/cabo191